TOJ New York Jets Free Agency Tracker – Day Four

Things are beginning to heat up in Florham Park as the rumor mill is spinning. Let’s take a look what John Idzik and the Jets front office are up to on day four of NFL free agency.

1) According to Adam Schefter, cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is flying in to Florham Park this evening for a visit. Rodgers-Cromartie was one of the best corners in the league last season, especially in man coverage. Rex Ryan’s defensive scheme relies heavily on isolated, cornerback man coverage, making him an excellent fit.

Although many will claim Rodgers-Cromartie has had an inconsistent career, it was his offseason retirement talk that seems to have scared away potential suitors. His worst years seemed to be in Philadelphia, where he was playing in zone coverage as a nickel back.

If the Jets do lock him up and he is motivated, Rex Ryan should be able to help Rodgers-Cromartie repeat another good year at the cornerback position.

2) Breno Giacomini’s contract terms were released today. The new Jets right tackle received a contract worth $18 million, $4.5 million per year with $7 million guaranteed.

That is impressive work by John Idzik. Giacomini is a lateral addition from the loss of Austin Howard, but he was paid more than double in guaranteed money than Giacomini from the Raiders.

3) What in the world is going on with wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders? The New York Daily News had been repeatedly reporting the Jets had a lot of interest in Sanders, pre-free agency. Sanders has visited with the Jaguars, Chiefs, and is now on his way to San Francisco to meet with the 49ers.

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports while both parties were interested in arranging a visit this week, the Jets and Sanders could not make an arrangement.

Allthis team needs now is Blake Bortles or Mettenberger… ther words a franchise Qb

Lidman

2) Breno Giacomini’s contract terms were released today. The new Jets right tackle received a contract worth $18 million, $4.5 million per year with $7 million guaranteed.

That is impressive work by John Idzik. Giacomini is a lateral addition from the loss of Austin Howard, but he was paid more than double in guaranteed money than Giacomini from the Raiders.

Don’t believe what you read in the media (right Joe?). According to OTC, only 7.9mm of Howard’s contract is ‘fully guaranteed’ http://overthecap.com/2014signings.php
The rest is guaranteed for injury, and dependent on him being on the roster in March 2015:

“Contract Details
Five-year contract worth $30 million. Howard received a $5 million roster bonus and fully guaranteed base salary in 2014. His 2015 base salary is guaranteed for injury and will become fully guaranteed in March of 2015. Howard will receive a $3 million roster bonus on the 5th day of the 2015 League Year. Base salaries of the contract are $2,900,000(2014), $3,900,000(2015), $4,400,000(2016), $4,900,000(2017), $5,400,000(2018).
Contract Analysis
While GM Reggie McKenzie has been torn apart for his 2014 offseason work, at least he structured this deal the right way. The lack of a signing bonus means no dead money is attached to this contract after 2014. Howard automatically gets $7.9 million in his pocket, but has no job security beyond that.”

It will be interesting to see how much of the $7mm guarantee Breno got is guaranteed.

Lidman

According to Cimini:

“Looking at it purely from an apples-to-apples perspective, the Jets made out nicely in the Giacomini-for-Austin Howard swap. Gone: A 27-year-old tackle with 32 career starts. His replacement: A 28-year-old tackle with 33 career starts. The dollar-for-dollar comparison, at least for 2014, is significantly different. Howard’s cap charge with the Oakland Raiders is $8 million; Giacomini’s charge is $2.625 million — a huge savings for the Jets. ”

I love that last line, talking about this year’s cap charge. Here’s the rub: The NYJ don’t need a HUGE savings, basically it looks like they let one of their own go to bring in an outsider.

I am skeptical of the Idzik. I appreciate he doesn’t want to spend, like a drunken sailor, on leave. However, if you’re not going to go out and spend big on a Byrd or Revis, and you’re going to give close to equal money to a guy who’s rated a bit better, but not an obvious upgrade (I’ll grant you it is an OLineman, so hard to quantify), you’d better be right.

To me, all Idzik is being lauded for is saving money, in a league where the cap is doing nothing but going up. On another note, Dominque Rogers Cromartie is being hailed as a good CB, based on him being Denver’s best CB last year.
That makes me feel good…bring back our Cro…please.

KAsh

@Lidman

McKenzie and Idzik are both second-year GMs on rebuilding teams with enormous cap room that are using roster bonuses instead of signing bonuses to reduce the future cap hit. For example, Howard’s contract is structured just like Decker’s. The fact of the matter is Howard, if effective, will cost 33% more per year than Giacomini (for what should be equal production). Over the next five years, Howard is scheduled to make just $1 million less than Golden Tate. That is a crazy contract for what seems to be an average starter at RT. Howard will either have to improve his play by 33% or his contract will be renegotiated/cut by the front office. You quoted OTC’s analysis above, but did not include the PFF analysis, which hinted that the Raiders overpayed.

Dave2220

We lost a tackle but replaced him at a discount. We lost a CB off his worst year and picked up a wid out off his best. DL still have Leger…

time to pick up a corner or start Walls… And a ton of picks.

Frank Antonelli

Lidman. It’s becoming obvious that you are totally clueless or a useless hater. Either way I have no use for the likes of you.

Mark Phelan

Frank – what’s with the personal attack on Lidman? Mark

Lidman

Mark…appreciate the thoughts..just ignore him

Kash…first, why do you use PFF here to compare the 2 tackles, but then basically say it’s useless when I pointed out that it rated Revis the number one CB?

The real point of that post was to show, that the guaranteed portion of the the contracts, are close to equal. How many NFL contracts actually get completed? I don’t know the answer but it’s not many. If Howard continues to improve, he’ll be a bargain. If he doesn’t he’ll get cut, or restructured.

Lidman

Kash..

I didn’t quote PFF on those posts because I stated the level of performance, which Mike Nolan had given us too. Here is what I said: “you’re going to give close to equal money to a guy who’s rated a bit better, but not an obvious upgrade (I’ll grant you it is an OLineman, so hard to quantify), you’d better be right.”

twoshady18

i’m glad to see that DRC is visiting the Jets. I was surprised that there was no talk about him before this since it seemed like a good fit to me. motivation is a problem? Rex has no trouble motivating his guys especially in his defensive system. I say lock DRC up and bring back Cro on the cheap. aren’t they related?

Lidman

Cousins.

Harold

DRC…

Hopefully no news is good news

John X

Idzik strikes again. DRC is leaving without a contract and meeting with the Giants Sunday.

But at least we have some money to spend on others. I miss Tanny.

John X

We may have been given a reprieve on DRC as Thurmond has signed with the Giants per Schefter.

Bruce Harper

I was very optimistic at the beginning of the Free Agency period because we had a lot of money, and I thought we would be replacing 1 guard, (and keeping Colon,) 1 tight end, one CB, 1 safety, 2 wide receivers, an outside linebacker and maybe even a quarterback. Inatead we lost and replaced an OT, and have gotten 1 WR. We still have lots of cap money to spend. But money doesn’t win football games, and although we can all point out free agency deals that don’t pan out, your job as a GM is to improve the team and put it in a position to win. Assuming we get a WR and TE in the first two rounds, Gino will now have a brand new offensive line to work with, and we need to have hime protected for him to grow. I am, so far, very disappointed in Idzik. To quote Jerry Garcia-‘your cards ain’t worth a dime if you don’t lay ’em down.’ My sense is that Idzik likes to get a deal to be so perfect that players go where GMs are willing to take more risks. PS-letting the Patriots get Revis is a nightmare.

Joe Caporoso

All I know is I see the Jets should be top target at WR (Jones), CB (DRC), OG (Colon), FS (Clemons) and QB (Vick)…all still on the market and all getting increasingly desperate for a contract

Lidman

Joe,

All these guys, are ‘solid’ players. None of them is a difference maker. So, he’s either going to get them on a ‘good contract’-which will leave him needing to spend, to get the the 89% level, or he’ll overspend for these guys.

He’s misjudged the market of the the real impact players. I think that is fair to say.

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